Dr. Stephen Strother

Dr. Gordon Winocur

Dr. Donna Rose Addis

CANADA 150 RESEARCH CHAIR IN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF MEMORY AND AGINGSENIOR SCIENTIST, ROTMAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Honorary Professor, School of Psychology, The University of Auckland
---

Research Focus

Humans have an amazing capacity to mentally traverse time and space: we can remember ourselves in the past and imagine ourselves in the future. My research program combines neuroimaging, behavioural and neuropsychological methods to investigate how the human brain enables us to remember past experiences, imagine future events and construct a coherent sense of self. In particular, I have focused on the qualities of memories and imagined events, the types of details that comprise these mental representations and the processes that underlie their (re)construction. I have also examined how these abilities change in healthy aging, psychiatric disorders, such as depression, as well as in the context of brain damage in dementia and epilepsy. My research in this area led to the development of our Constructive Episodic Simulation Hypothesis, a theory that describes the overlapping cognitive processes involved in memory and imagination. Moreover, my work has elucidated the role of specific brain regions (e.g., the hippocampus) and whole-brain networks in memory and imagination, as well as other forms of creative cognition.

Dr. Claude Alain

Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research is in the field of cognitive neuroscience and focuses on the brain processes that mediate perception and cognition of auditory patterns and events, specifically short-term memory and selective attention. I use a combination of neuroimaging techniques (e.g., ERPs, MEG, and fMRI) to investigate which, and how, different brain areas work together when participants' attention is directed to a particular sound identity and/or sound location in the auditory field. The hypothesis is that the auditory system provides the listener with the identity of the event as well as its location, i.e. the what and the where, and that these two types of information are provided by different areas of the brain. I am also interested in the neural and psychological mechanisms that underlie auditory scene analysis and how these mechanisms are influenced by the aging process. We are currently conducting several experiments that focus on the neural correlates of auditory scene analysis using either EEG, MEG and/or fMRI. These include investigating age-related differences in auditory cortical activity underlying concurrent sound perception, age-related differences in identifying and localizing auditory objects, and the effect of musical expertise on auditory scene analysis.

Dr. Nicole Anderson

DIRECTOR OF THE BEN & HILDA KATZ INTER-PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAM IN GERIATRIC AND DEMENTIA CARESenior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My primary research focuses on cognitive interventions for healthy older adults, older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or adults recovering from stroke or traumatic brain injury. The goal of this research is to understand the cognitive mechanisms of the interventions, and to then use that information to help improve their efficacy. I am interested in whether the interventions improve the targeted function, whether they generalize to other cognitive tasks and to everyday functioning, and whether they change brain activity so that networks implicated in healthy (or younger) adults are recruited after treatment. Via collaboration with Dr. Carol Greenwood and Dr. Bradley MacIntosh and others, I am also conducting research on the cognitive and neural correlates of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). While there is now ample evidence of memory deficits associated with T2DM, information about how this plays out in terms of cerebral blood flow or the BOLD signal is lacking. Our goal is to gain a comprehensive understanding of these mechanisms, and to ascertain how they are common or separable from the effects of a common co-morbidity of T2DM, namely hypertension.

Dr. Malcolm Binns

Dr. Bradley Buchsbaum

Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research investigates both the neural mechanisms and the cognitive systems that underlie working memory, with special emphasis on how the cerebral speech apparatus – both its perceptual and motor poles – is utilized in the context of verbal memory maintenance. In so doing, it is important to characterize the extent to which basic linguistic processes such as speech perception and production are dissociable from “pure” memory functions. By the same token, although language comprehension and production are intrinsically memory demanding, it remains to be elucidated how memory resources are marshalled in the context of basic linguistic processing. Certainly, questions as to the interface or the intertwining of memory and language will be easier to approach once we have a better understanding as to how, even on classic tasks such as serial recall and item recognition, memories are represented in the mind and brain. Thus, my research program concentrates on the extent to which the sensorimotor systems that support perception and action in the “here and now” can be recruited, whether for replay of the past or simulation of the future, during the act of memory.

Dr. Jean Chen

Canada Research Chair in Neuroimaging of AgingScientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

Normal brain function is predicated upon continuous neuronal and vascular interplays, a mechanism that is essential to brain function. It is also likely to deteriorate during the cognitive decline associated with aging as well as neurological disorders. Despite previous research efforts, the causes of aging-related illnesses such as dementia remain unclear, and the key to preventative treatment elusive. My research is driven by the need to better understand disease mechanisms, by using neuroimaging to observe the living brain. My research is focused on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methodological development, physiological modeling, and the application of our methods in characterizing diseases/treatments. Specifically, we are interested in:

Dr. Howard Chertkow is a remarkably distinguished cognitive neurologist whose contributions are admired across the world. Dr. Chertkow joins Baycrest and the University of Toronto from Montreal’s McGill University, where he served as Director of the Jewish General Hospital (JGH) and McGill University Bloomfield Centre for Research in Aging and was a Senior Investigator in the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research. In his practice at the JGH, Dr. Chertkow diagnosed and treated patients with early stage Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, and helped found and direct Canada’s largest memory clinic.

Dr. Chertkow will direct the new Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health and Wellness, a research, education and clinical interdisciplinary program to develop and evaluate the most promising approaches to preventing cognitive decline. As its inaugural Director, Dr. Chertkow will assemble a state-of-the-art Clinical Trials Unit and further develop Baycrest’s translational research program in dementia to test the latest emerging therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions. He will also serve as a Clinical Advisor to the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), the largest venture of its kind in the global seniors’ care sector.

He is an exceptionally prolific researcher in the area of dementia, serving since 2014 as Scientific Director of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA), which has brought together 400 leading dementia researchers in Canada. Dr. Chertkow is an elected member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

His areas of research interest include: early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and prediction of deterioration in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI); the structure, organization, and function of the semantic memory component of long term memory, and its deterioration in dementia; localization of language and memory functions in the brain using functional imaging; and therapy of cognitive disorders in Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia using neuromodulation approaches.

Dr. Fergus Craik

Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research is into aspects of human memory and attention, including changes in these functions across the adult life span. In terms of theoretical approaches, I take the view that memory processes are activities of the mind and brain as opposed to structural 'things in the head'. By this view, the processes of acquiring information ('encoding') and using or re-experiencing that information later ('retrieving') are mental and neural activities, much as is the case with perceiving and thinking. In an early paper with Robert Lockhart we proposed a 'levels of processing' framework for memory research, stressing this active approach and making the case that 'deeper' semantic processes are the ones associated with best subsequent memory performance. I have conducted a number of experimental studies over the past 30 years to illustrate and confirm this point of view. We have shown for example that memory performance can vary as much as 400% (a fourfold increase) depending simply on the type of processing that is carried out at the time of initial acquisition. Results from other labs have also shown that a second major factor is the similarity between encoding operations and subsequent retrieval operations -- greater similarity means better performance.

More recently I have been involved in work exploring the brain correlates of these effects using the functional neuroimaging facilities at the Rotman Institute. Several studies have now shown that the benefits to memory found with deep semantic processing are associated with neural activity in the ventral areas of the left prefrontal cortex.

My research into memory changes with aging follows the same principles. Age-related memory problems are real, but the degree of impairment is quite variable depending on how memory is tested. The ability to recall events and facts with few aids and out of context is typically poor in older adults, whereas the ability to recognise verbal or pictorial material can be virtually at the level of a younger person. It thus seems that the ability to 'self-initiate' appropriate mental processes is difficult for older people (possibly because they involve frontal lobe functions) and that by the same token older adults profit greatly from the 'environmental support' provided by reinstating the context of original learning or by the test materials themselves, as with recognition tests. We are currently applying these ideas to the development of techniques to counteract memory failures in older people. One interesting problem relates to the nature of the benefits associated with physical activity and with long-lasting mental activities such as solving puzzles and lifelong bilingualism. These effects contribute to 'cognitive reserve' and one focus of current work is to document these effects systematically and to gain some insight into their neural correlates.

This research is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and by the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

Dr. Deirdre Dawson

Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research is concerned with optimizing occupational performance; that is, enabling persons to do the day-to-day activities they want to do. In general, my research focuses on adults and older adults with acquired brain injury (traumatic and stroke). My interests are in determining the factors that contribute to successful outcomes and in designing and testing rehabilitation programs that use these factors. My work flows from a biopsychosocial model of health and the interventions I am testing incorporate elements to address both cognitive and psychosocial factors. Currently I am involved with several intervention studies:

a psychosocial module that is part of a multi-faceted cognitive rehabilitation intervention for people with white matter disease

the refinement of a contextualized, meta-cogntive approach for adults with ABI

a community integration project partnering people with ABI with healthy volunteers to participate in community-based physical activity programs

Research Focus

My research is aimed at improving our understanding of the mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. A major focus is on the study of social cognition in these disorders. A second focus is on the development of cognitive assessment procedures in dementia. My colleagues and I have written a book on clock drawing that contains a large set of normative data and have developed a mental status examination, called the Behavioural Neurology Assessment, that is suitable for use by physicians in the office setting.

This research will have implications for future studies in Alzheimer's disease related to determining the underlying causes, the development of refined diagnostic criteria, and treatment.

Dr. Cheryl Grady

Canada Research Chair in Neurocognitive AgingSenior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research focuses on the use of brain imaging to explore the functional changes that occur in aging and how these relate to changes in behaviour.

A hypothesis is that we can demonstrate functional reorganization in the brains of older individuals when the experimental conditions are conducive to good performance in the elderly.

A recent experiment showed that older individuals have reduced activity in medial temporal regions but greater activity in left prefrontal cortex, compared to young adults, during a short-term face memory task.

The old adults' performance on this task was only slightly below that of the young adults, indicating that increased utilization of prefrontal cortex may have compensated in some way for dysfunction elsewhere in the brain.

This research will aid us in rehabilitation efforts by helping us to understand the brain alterations that are responsible for improvements that occur with training.

This research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

Dr. Carol Greenwood

Senior Scientist Rotman Research Institute and Department of Foods and Nutrition, Baycrest

Professor Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto

Research Focus

I am interested in the relationship between diet and brain function, with specific interest in cognitive function and appetite regulation. One area of investigation focuses on healthy seniors and the impact of lifelong dietary patterns on risk of cognitive decline with aging. My current focus is on the role of type 2 diabetes (non-insulin dependent) as a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia. These studies include an examination of the impact of meal, or food, consumption on cognitive function since many older adults with type 2 diabetes experience transient decreases in cognitive function following meal ingestion. My studies aim to understand the biologic means whereby food ingestion interferes with cognitive function in those with diabetes and to identify food strategies which minimize this decline. My other area of investigation focuses on institutionalized seniors with cognitive impairment, such as that observed with advanced Alzheimer Disease, and identifying nutrition strategies to reduce their risk of developing malnutrition. I am studying eating patterns in institutionalized seniors to understand how Alzheimer Disease influences eating behaviour and whether eating behaviours change at different stages of disease progression. Through this understanding, I am testing nutrition interventions which accommodate disease induced alterations in eating behaviours and appetite regulation to determine whether they are effective approaches to increase food intake which can be implemented in the institutional setting.

Dr. Lynn Hasher

Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

The work in my laboratory continues to focus on inhibitory control over the contents of working memory - or over momentary consciousness. Most recently we have shown that classic measures of working memory do not measure how much information can be held onto. Rather they measure the amount of task-relevant information that is held. People with small working memory spans tend to continue to deal with no longer relevant information while people with large working memory spans focus only on the currently relevant information. Older adults' spans tend to be reduced in size, relative to that of younger adults' spans, but that reduction is because older adults continue to consider no longer relevant information, while younger adults do not. The theory that guides this work is published in a chapter in the Attention and Performance volume (2000).

Other work focuses on the degree to which performance, particularly that of older adults' is impacted by the time at which they are tested. We continue to show that on many tasks (e.g., including span tasks, attention tasks, memory tasks and some neuropsychological tests), the performance of older adults is far better at their optimal time (usually the morning) than it is at their nonoptimal time (later in the day). We attribute this to the operation of circadian arousal patterns that impact on inhibitory control, but not on excitatory control.

Dr. Brian Levine

Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

Dr. Brian Levine is a scientist and clinical neuropsychologist interested in the function and dysfunction of large-scale neural systems as expressed in complex human behaviours, including episodic and autobiographical memory, self-regulation, and goal management. Much of his research concerns syndromes seen in patients with focal brain lesions due to strokes and tumors, traumatic brain injury, dementia, and psychiatric disorders; he also studies healthy young and older adults. Dr. Levine is particularly interested in the real-life deficits faced by patients with brain disease. As these deficits are often not readily apparent in standard neuropsychological or neurological examinations, Dr. Levine uses novel assessment techniques, coupled with multimodal neuroimaging (structural and functional MRI, EEG, and MEG) in his research.

Dr. Linda Mah

Clinician Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research focuses on the on the use of behavioural paradigms and brain imaging to study cognitive and emotional processing and the neurobiology of mood and anxiety disorders. Behavioural and neuroimaging studies have demonstrated abnormalities of information processing and structures including the amygdala and anatomically-related limbic and paralimbic regions as pathogenetic mechanisms for major depressive disorder in mid-life, but little is known regarding emotional processing and its neural correlates in elderly depressed individuals. We are currently conducting fMRI studies designed to evaluate emotional processing and brain activity in geriatric depression. We will determine whether abnormalities in the unmedicated, depressed state are predictive of treatment response and whether there are associations with cognitive deficits and other clinical variables. We hypothesize that patterns of emotional processing and activation of specific brain regions including the amygdala, anterior cingulate, orbital cortex, and ventral striatum, will differentiate elderly depressed subjects from age-matched healthy control subjects. The identification of specific neuroanatomical targets using fMRI may inform the development of new and more effective strategies for treatment of depression in late life.

Dr. Anthony Randal "Randy" McIntosh

SENIOR SCIENTIST, ROTMAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Research Focus

My research program is geared to the development of a unified theory of brain operation that emphasizes the integrative capacity of the brain. One tenet of the theory is that cognitive operations emerge from the interactions between brain areas rather than being the sole responsibility of single regions. The program has two related arms: one to do with technical developments to explore brain integration, and the other with the collection of experimental evidence for this integration. This second arm uses modern brain imaging methods to explore the neural networks in human learning. One surprising outcome of this work has been the profound involvement of sensory processing regions of the brain in rather complex cognitive operations. This suggests that human cognition involves the active interaction among brain regions that processes specific sensory information (e.g., visual, auditory) and the mediating areas, such as prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobes. In collaboration with Dr Cheryl Grady, we are undertaking a series of studies of the aged to explore whether age-related changes in cognition come about through physiological alterations in sensory systems, the mediating systems, or in the interaction between them.

Dr. Morris Moscovitch

Max and Gianna Glassman Chair in Neuropsychology and AgingSenior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research program is concerned with the cognitive neuroscience of memory, attention, and face-recognition in neurologically normal young and old people and in people with focal or degenerative brain lesions. My studies on memory include investigations of: amnesia for recently-acquired (anterograde amnesia) and remote memories (retrograde amnesia); confabulation and other memory distortions in people with medial temporal and frontal lobe lesions; the role of attention during memory encoding and retrieval; the interaction of psychosocial factors and brain mechanisms that affect quality of life and cognition in the elderly; and the role of consciousness in memory. I am also conducting research on face and object recognition in young and old adults and in people with focal lesions that selectively affect either recognition of faces, objects, or words, to learn what distinguishes perception of one kind of material from another. Funding is provided by the Medical Research Council of Canada and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

Dr. Jed Meltzer

Canada Research Chair in Interventional Cognitive NeuroscienceScientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

I am accepting applications for new graduate students for fall 2018.

I am a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in language, with research interests both in the basic science of language processing from a neurobiological perspective, and in applications to the diagnosis and treatment of acquired neurological disorders such as stroke and dementia.

Google Scholar page:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qp7qPF8AAAAJ&hl=en

Much of my work has dealt with neural oscillations measured with electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). These tools offer the ability to track the engagement of various brain networks at high temporal resolution, allowing us to assess the contributions of multiple neural pathways to the processes of language comprehension and production. Furthermore, the electrophysiological signals measured by these technologies are rich in information to address advanced questions beyond "where and when" information is processed in the brain. Specific areas of research interest include:

1) Interhemispheric interactions for language and motor functions. The human brain is functionally asymmetrical, with the left hemisphere playing a dominant role in language and also hand movement, and the right hemisphere exhibiting specialization for spatial processing. However, interaction between the two hemispheres is an essential part of everyday functioning, and seems to play an increasingly important role in compensating for functional declines occurring in neurological disease, and also in the normal process of aging. Interhemispheric interaction has been characterized as either cooperative or competitive, and understanding how both kinds of interactions can happen simultaneously is essential to harnessing the therapeutic potential of modulating them. Our laboratory conducts behavioural and neuroimaging (MEG, fMRI) studies of tasks involving interhemispheric transfer of information.

2) Quantifying and modulating dysfunctional neural activity. Although structural brain damage (i.e. death of neurons) is a key feature of both stroke and dementia, many of the behavioural deficits in these disorders may be attributable to subtler forms of damage and dysfunction that are potentially reversible. In recent work, my laboratory has pioneered analyses of resting-state MEG dynamics to localize and quantify dysfunctional activity in brain areas that are affected by disease but still structurally intact. Ongoing work tests whether such dysfunction may be reversible using approaches such as brain stimulation and drugs, resulting in therapeutic improvements. Current brain stimulation experiments involve transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-TDCS) of areas implicated in language and motor deficits.

3) Harnessing technological advances in language assessment and rehabilitation. Advances in computational linguistics are proving invaluable in both basic and cognitive neuroscience. The use of software to select stimuli for language experiments on quantitative criteria is now commonplace, but many other transformations are underway. For the assessment and treatment of dementia and stroke, our studies used automated analysis of naturalistic language samples to identify patterns of language change associated with normal aging and neurological impariment. These measures, along with the brain imaging measures discussed above, offer the potential to evaluate novel interventions more sensitively, to test whether a given intervention is having a desirable effect in a given individual, early in the intervention process. Additional work concerns the use of advanced technological tools as therapeutic aids in neurorehabilitation, including adult-oriented computer training software incorporating spaced repetition, and speech therapy delivered remotely through telerehabilitation software.

Dr. Rosanna Olsen

Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research is focused broadly on the organization and neural substrates supporting human memory. Through the use of parallel and converging cognitive neuroscience methodologies, my research seeks to better understand how the brain stores new information, maintains information in mind, and retrieves previously stored memories. My research has contributed to the emerging consensus that the hippocampus, an area of the brain that has long been implicated in supporting memory for information held in long-term memory, also contributes to memory performance for recently studied information (Olsen et. al., Journal of Neuroscience, 2009). My current research is centered on the proposal that the hippocampus enables memory by forming associations among disparate elements presented across space and time, and further, by performing the comparison of stored memory representations with current perceptual input (Olsen et. al., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2012). It is my hope that, ultimately, through careful study of the hippocampus and the cortical systems supporting memory, my research will enable better understanding and treatment of memory impairments associated with healthy aging, brain damage, and psychiatric illness.

Dr. Bernhard Ross

Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My main research questions for the recent years were “What makes speech understanding difficult in aging?” (and how can we overcome those difficulties?) and “What is special to music, that we can apply to medicine?”. At the first glance, both questions seem mutually exclusive, however when studying the underlying neural mechanisms it becomes clear that both are strongly interconnected.

My research about speech understanding in noise is informed by the common complaint of elderly people that amplification with hearing aids restored sensation, specifically at high frequencies, which become more difficult to hear in older age. However, hearing aids did not help separating speech from noise and consequently improve understanding. Our previous research supported the hypothesis that hearing sensation and registration of sound at the brain level are sufficiently well preserved in elderly listeners, however the efficacy of neural processes for interpreting the sound, which then result in perception of the meaning of speech, is affected by age. Also neural processes of perception seems to be more vulnerable to noise in older than young adults. A broad part of my research is dedicated to identify neural mechanism underlying auditory perception and how those are affected by aging.

Dr. Jennifer Ryan

Director of Scientific and Academic AffairsReva James Leeds Chair in Neuroscience and Research LeadershipSenior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

The central focus of my research is to characterize the nature of memory systems, their resultant representations, and the influence of those representations on current cognitive processing. My work examines memory and cognition in neurologically-intact younger and older adults and neuropsychological patients using behavioral paradigms, eyetracking, and neuroimaging (e.g., magnetoencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging). Recently, my work has also focused on deficits in relational memory binding may be overcome through the increased use of neocortical learning mechanisms (e.g., anchoring information to existing knowledge or schemas; unitization). Altogether, research in my lab employs a converging-methodologies approach to outline the distinct neural systems, and their spatiotemporal dynamics, that support memory and cognition.

Research Focus

(BA in Mathematics and Psychology, Pomona College; PhD in Psychology, University of California, Berkeley; @asek47)

My research focuses on how we perceive the world around us, and how those perceptions are influenced by aging, context, and experience. We conduct research in a variety of research areas, asking questions such as:

how do aging, experience, context, and perceptual learning impact the perception and neural processing of visual information?

how does information across our senses (e.g., vision and hearing) interact and influence our perception of the world, both in the lab, and in everyday activities such as driving?

what are the behavioural and physiological links between vision and higher level cognitive functions, such as attention and memory?

and, how can we develop and use technologies (including augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and mind-machine technologies) to improve perception, attention, and memory?

We conduct research with adults across the lifespan, and have laboratories in the Rotman Research Institute (RRI; VisAge Lab, run with Dr. Eugenie Roudaia) and at McMaster University (Vision & Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, run with Dr. Patrick Bennett). I accept graduate students both through the University of Toronto (Department of Psychology) and McMaster University (Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, Graduate Programs in Neuroscience, and Graduate Program in Computational Science & Engineering), and students can be focused in one lab or span both labs. Current research at the RRI focuses on understanding how vision changes across the lifespan in both healthy older adults and individuals with mild cognitive impairment and dementia, and how vision, memory, and attention interact in those populations. We also are conducting a number of intervention studies related to falls prevention, mindfulness training, and the effectiveness of social robots. Our research uses a combination of behavioural, computational, and imaging techniques, including EEG, and we welcome and encourage students to apply to our lab from a range of disciplinary backgrounds (e.g., psychology, neuroscience, computer science, mathematics, artificial intelligence, engineering, kinesiology, etc.).

Dr. Stephen Strother

Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research is directed at developing and testing a set of optimal experimental planning, standardization and analysis tools for neuroimaging researchers that are coupled with state-of-the-art neuroimaging research databases. The overall goal is to yield new insights into human mental functions, how they are changed with normal aging, and compromised by damage and disease across the lifespan. We pursue this by merging and formally optimizing multi-modality neuroimaging (e.g., positron emission tomography, structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography) and meta-data using machine learning and modern biostatistical techniques.

A major focus of this work involves multi-institutional support of the Brain-CODE data repository and analytics infrastructure at HPCVL supported by the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI). In particular we are co-investigators within the multi-institutional, independent disease programs in neurodegeneration and depression funded by OBI, and the multi-institutional stroke program of the Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery.

My goals require optimization of the experimental designs, data-analysis algorithms and associated software tools being developed for cognitive neuroscience and clinical neuroimaging as a function of age and disease, in the so-called "processing pipeline". Processing pipeline choices in neuroimaging pose a range of critical issues, particularly which tools/packages to use for a particular experiment. However, there is growing evidence that new insights into human brain function may be obscured by poor choices in the image-processing pipeline particularly as a function of age and disease. We are focusing on using HPC to optimize pipelines for measuring brain networks with multivariate machine learning models and resampling techniques from the field of statistical learning theory. In particular we are developing a quantitative, optimization framework called NPAIRS that focuses on using prediction and reproducibility metrics. An initial software package is distributed as an opensource Java package, and several other packages are under development and undergoing evaluation for commercialization.

Dr. Gordon Winocur

Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute

Research Focus

My research is concerned with cognitive changes associated with selective brain damage and normal aging in humans and animal models.

Current projects, involving animals and humans, investigate the pattern of lost and spared memory loss following damage to the hippocampus, with a particular interest in spatial memory and remote memory. A new initiative investigates the impact of stroke on cognition and motor function and recovery in rats considered to be at high or low risk. Other ongoing projects involving animal models study the effects of high dietary fat and insulin resistance on learning and memory, the effects of chemotherapy on aspects of cognition, hippocampal neurogenesis and memory, and the cognitive profiles of transgenic mice carrying genetic abnormalities associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Following a recently completed trial of a new cognitive rehabilitation protocol involving older adults, a new study is assessing the effectiveness of this program in cognitively impaired patients with white matter disease who are at high risk for stroke. The long-term plan includes extending this work to other populations, such as traumatic brain injury, and Mild Cognitive Impairment.

This research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canadian Centre for Stroke Recovery (Heart and Stroke Foundation).